atters stood at the chateau. I put my reasons hastily to him, and
he said he could promise me a safe hiding-place at his mill. And I could
travel the faster in the end for a rest now, which I looked as if I
needed,--in truth, I had slept little and badly in the hall the previous
night, and the day's business had told upon me. So, perhaps most because
it was pleasant to be with a trusty companion who shared my cause of
anxiety, I agreed to go to his house for supper, and to set out after
night-fall.

"Good!" said Hugues. "Then you had best ride ahead, Monsieur, so we are
not seen together. You can leave me now as if you had been merely asking
your way. If you ride slowly when you are out of the town, I shall catch
up."

I did as he suggested, and he soon overtook me on the road. His house
proved to be a cottage of good size built against a mill, with a small
barn at one side of the yard and a stable at the other. When I had
dismounted at his door, we unsaddled and unbridled my horse, so that it
might pass for a new horse of his own if pursuers looked into his
stable. He then called his boy and his woman-servant, and told them what
to say if anybody came inquiring. We carried my saddle, bridle, and
portmanteau through the cottage to the mill, and thence to a small
cellar which was reached by means of a well-concealed trap-door in the
mill-floor. This cellar should be my refuge in case the Count's men came
there seeking me.

"I made this hiding-place," said Hugues, moving his candle about to show
how well floored and walled it was, "because one could never say when
Mathilde, living in that fearful chateau, might want a place to fly to.
She would not leave her mistress, you know, though the Countess's other
women went gladly enough when the Count sent them off. Nobody knows
there is anything between Mathilde and me, Monsieur,--except the
Countess. It is safer so. We have been waiting for the Count to die, so
that all might be well with the Countess, for Mathilde could marry me
then with easy mind."

"I hope that God will send that time soon," said I.

"But meanwhile, this present danger?" said Hugues.

We returned to the living-room of the cottage, and talked of the matter
while we had supper. I told Hugues everything, misrepresenting only so
far as to make it appear that the Count's jealousy was still entirely
unfounded, and that he had mistaken the Countess's feelings at our
confrontation. Whatever Hugues may have